Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority has begun a four-week trial of the Glydways automated transit system at Bluewaters, marking the first public test of the technology in the emirate.
RTA Director General Mattar Al Tayer attended a briefing on the system alongside Glydways Founder and Co-CEO Mark Seeger and Co-CEO and Chief Technology Officer Blake Barber, before taking a five-minute ride along the designated route to formally open the trial.
The Glydways vehicles are small autonomous electric pods that run on narrow, dedicated guideways. The structures can be built at ground level or elevated, and operate independently of general traffic. Each vehicle carries four to six passengers, travels at up to 50 km/h, and has a range of up to 250 km on a single charge. The system can link more than 10 vehicles with headways of less than one second and claims capacity of more than 20,000 passengers per hour in both directions.
The trial phase will assess autonomous driving performance, sensing and communication systems, safety readiness, and user experience, generating data to inform potential network expansion.
“The start of trial operation for the Glydways system marks an important step in RTA’s journey towards adopting and developing future mobility systems, in line with the directives of our wise leadership to strengthen Dubai’s global leadership in smart and sustainable mobility. It also reflects RTA’s commitment to harnessing advanced technologies to develop an integrated and flexible transport system that supports the emirate’s rapid urban and economic growth and contributes to enhancing quality of life and the well-being of residents and visitors,” Mattar Al Tayer said in a statement.
“RTA is committed to transforming promising innovations and technologies in the transport sector into practical applications, and to testing and evaluating them within Dubai’s urban environment. The trial operation marksan important stage in assessing the system’s operational and technical aspects, evaluating its ability to provide a safe, seamless and reliable mobility experience, and exploring opportunities for integration with the public transport network, particularly for first- and last-mile journeys,” Al Tayer added.
“The start of trial operation in Dubai marks an important milestone in our collaboration with RTA and a significant step in demonstrating the potential of automated transit networks to meet the needs of modern cities and deliver flexible, high-capacity, on-demand mobility services. Dubai provides an advanced environment for developing and testing future mobility solutions. Through our collaboration with RTA, we look forward to utilising the results of the trial operation to assess the system’s performance and further develop its solutions, supporting Dubai’s aspirations for smart, seamless and sustainable mobility,” Mark Seeger, Founder and Co-CEO of Glydways further explained.
The Bluewaters pilot is running under a partnership between RTA and Dubai Holding, which covers field-testing preparation, infrastructure, and operational support. The broader project is structured as a public-private partnership with Glydways, which was founded in 2016 and specialises in scalable automated transit networks.
First- and last-mile connectivity is the primary use case the project is targeting. RTA is studying several routes linking Metro stations with surrounding areas, including a 2.8 km connection between National Paints Metro Station and Bluewaters. Other routes under consideration would serve Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Festival City, Business Bay, and Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
The company says its model reduces capital costs by up to 90% and operating costs by up to 70% compared with similar transport modes, though these figures come from Glydways itself rather than independent assessment.
